SHOAH By Claude Lanzmann Adapted for the stage by Dr. Harry J. Kantrovich CAST: • CHELMNO: o Simon Srebnik (Survivor) o Mordechai Podchlebnik (Survivor) o Franz Schalling (Nazi Security Guard – Schutzpolizei) o Mrs. Michelsohn (wife of a Nazi schoolteacher) • AUSCHWITZ: o Mrs. Pietyra (Resident) o Rudolph Vrba (Survivor) o Filip Müller (Survivor of 5 liquidations of the Auschwitz “special detail”) o Ruth Elias (Survivor) o Walter Stier (Ex member of the Nazi Party, former head of Reich Railways Department 33 of the Nazi Party) • TREBLINKA: o Abraham Bomba: (Survivor) o Czeslaw Borowi (Lifelong Resident) o Henrik Gawkowski (Railway Worker) o Richard Glazar: (Survivor) o Franz Suchomel (SS Unterscharfuhrer) • BERLIN: o Inge Deutschkron: (Born in Berlin and lived there throughout the war. In hiding beginning February 1943) • WARSAW: o Dr. Franz Grassler (Deputy to Dr. Auerswald (Nazi Commissioner Warsaw Ghetto) o Itzhak Zuckermann (“Antek”, second in command of the Jewish Combat Organization) o Simcha Rottem (“Kojik” – Jewish Underground) • Raul Hilberg: (Austrian Born, Jewish-American Political Scientist and Historian. World’s Premier Scholar on Holocaust) • Interviewer (Claude Lanzmann) 1 CHELMNO Interviewer (To set the stage) The story begins in the present at Chelmno, on the Narew River, in Poland. Fifty miles northwest of Lodz, in the heart of the region that once had a large Jewish population. Chelmno was the place in Poland where Jews were first exterminated by gas. At Chelmno four hundred thousand Jews were murdered in two separate periods; December 1941 to Spring 1943 and June 1944 to January 1945. Of the four hundred thousand men, women and children who went there, only two came out alive; Mordechai Podchlebnik and Simon Srebnik, a survivor of the last period, was a boy of thirteen when he was sent to Chelmno. His father had been killed before his eyes in the ghetto in Lodz; his mother died in a gas van at Chelmno. The SS placed him in one of the “Jewish work details”, assigned to maintaining the extermination camps and slated in turn for death. During the night of January 18, 1945, two days before Soviet troops arrived, the Nazis killed off all remaining Jews in “work details” with a bullet in the head. Simon was among those executed. But the bullet missed his vital brain center. When he came to, he crawled into a pigsty. A Polish farmer found him there. The boy was treated and healed by a Soviet doctor. He was found in Israel and persuaded to return to Chelmno. He was then forty-seven years old. Simon Srebnik For me, Simon Srebnik, it’s hard to recognize, but it was here. They burned people here. A lot of people were burned here. Yes, this is the place. No one ever left here again. The gas vans came in here…there were two huge ovens, and afterward the bodies were thrown into these ovens, and the flames reached to the sky. It was terrible. No one can describe it. No one can recreate what happened here. Impossible? And, no one can understand it. Even I, here, now…I can’t believe I’m here. No, I just can’t believe it. It was always this peaceful here. Always. When they burned two thousand people – Jews – every day, it was just as peaceful. No one shouted. Everyone went about his work. It was silent. Peaceful. Just as it is now. Interviewer (Italics) and Mordechai Podchlebnik Mordechai, What died in you in Chelmno? Everything died. But, I’m only human, and I want to live. So, I must forget. I thank God for what remains, and that I can forget. Let’s not talk about that. 2 Do you think it’s good to talk about it? For me, it’s not good. Then why are you talking about it? Because you are insisting. I was sent books on Eichmann’s trial. I was a witness, and I didn’t read them. At times I felt as if I were dead, because I never thought I’d survive. But, I’m alive. Why do you smile all of the time? What do you want me to do, cry? Sometimes you smile, sometimes you cry. And, if you are alive, it’s better to smile. How did you react the first time you unloaded corpses, when the gas van doors were opened? What could I do? I cried. The third day I saw my wife and children. I placed my wife in the grave and asked to be killed. The Germans said I was strong enough to work, that I wouldn’t be killed yet. Was the winter very cold? It was in the winter of 1942, in early January. The bodies weren’t burned, they were buried, and each row was covered with dirt. They weren’t being burned yet. There were around four or five layers. The ditches were funnel-shaped. They dumped the bodies in these ditches, and they had to lay them out like herrings, head to foot. Simon Srebnik There was a concrete platform some distance away, and the bones that hadn’t burned, the big bones of the feet, for example, we took. There was a chest with two handles. We carried the bones there, where others had to crush them. It was very fine, that powdered bone. Then it was put into sacks, and when there were enough sacks, we went to a bridge on the Narew River, and dumped the powder. The current carried it off. It drifted downstream. Interviewer (Italics) and Franz Schalling Mr. Schalling, you weren’t in the SS, you were… Police Which police? Security guards. We were told to report to the Deutsches Haus, German Headquarters, the only big stone building in the village. We were taken into it. An SS man immediately told us: “This is a top-secret mission!” 3 Secret? “A top-secret mission.” “Sign this!” We each had to sign. There was a form ready for each of us, a pledge of secrecy. We never got to read it though. You had to take an oath? No, just sign, promising to shut up about whatever we’d see. Not say a word. After we’d signed, we were told: “Final solution of the Jewish question.” We didn’t understand what that meant. It all looked normal. So, someone said… He told us what was going to happen there. Someone said: “The final solution of the Jewish question?” You’d be assigned to the “final solution?” Yes, but what did that mean? We’d never heard that before. So, it was explained to us. Just when was this? Let’s see…when was it…? In the winter of 1941-42. Then we were assigned to our stations. Our guard post was at the side of the road, a sentry box in front of the castle. So, you were in the “castle detail”? That’s right. Can you describe what you saw? We could see. We were at the gatehouse. When the Jews arrived, the way they looked! Half frozen, starved, dirty, already half dead. Old people, children. Think of it! The long trip here, standing in the truck, packed in! Who knows if they knew what was in store? They didn’t trust anyone, that’s for sure. After months in the ghetto, you can imagine! I heard an SS man shout at them: “You’re going to be deloused and have a bath. You’re going to work here.” The Jews consented. They said: “Yes, that’s what we want to do.” Was the castle big? Pretty big, with huge front steps. The SS man stood at the top of the steps. Then what happened? They were hustled into two or three big rooms on the first floor. They had to undress, give up everything: rings, gold, everything. How long did the Jews stay there? Long enough to undress. Then, stark naked, they had to run down more steps to an underground corridor that led back up to the ramp, where the gas van awaited them. 4 Did the Jews enter the van willingly? No, they were beaten. Blows fell everywhere, and the Jews understood. They screamed. It was frightful! Frightful! I know because we went down to the cellar when they were all in the van. We opened the cells of the work detail, the Jewish workers who collected stuff thrown into the yard out of a first-floor window. Describe the gas vans. They stretched say, from here to the window. Just big trucks, like moving vans, with two rear doors. What system was used? With exhaust fumes. A Pole yelled “Gas!” Then the driver got under the van to hook up the pipe that fed the gas into the van. Who were the drivers? SS men. All those men were SS. Could you hear the sound of the motor? Yes, from the gate we could hear it turn over. The van was stationary while the motor ran? That’s right. Then it started moving. We opened the gate and it headed for the woods. Were the people already dead? I don’t know. It was quiet. No more screams. You couldn’t hear anything as it drove by. Interviewer (Italics) and Mordechai Podchlebnik I recall it was 1941, two days before the New Year. We were routed out at night, and in the morning, we reached Chelmno. There was a castle there. When I entered the castle courtyard, I knew something awful was going on. I already understood. We saw clothes and shoes scattered in the courtyard. Yet, we were alone. I knew my parents had been through there, and there wasn’t a Jew left.